Robert Michael O'Connor Interview, 23 February 2005

Yeah, I heard it and I saw it come in and kinda circle around and come over the area that we were talking about. They didn't come right over the top of us but they came in back like this [gestures circling movement] and came over the area.

TT:

Were you notified that they were coming?

MO:

No, we just saw it coming.

TT:

Were you watching this object when the B-52 appeared?

MO:

No, I was watching the B-52. I said "Man he's awful low if he's making a landing" (laughs). But he wasn't making a landing. Now that I know that, I didn't know that he was that low, or he was sentI didn't know he was sent over until all this stuff came out. Personally, when that 52 went over I thought he was just coming in for a landing. I didn't realize that he was sent over there.

TT:

To see what was going on.

MO:

To see what was happening. Yeah.

TT:

How did you see him, what did it look likethe B-52?

MO:

I saw all the marker lights and everything, I could hear the engines, I could see the body of the plane at that point.

TT:

All right. You guys didn't realize this but a UFO paced them during that time

MO:

Now, I knew about that.

TT:

How did you know about that?

MO:

When we were in front of the Base Commander, we were all sitting in the same room and they just asked us to describe what we saw and it came out that the B-52 hadthe guy, I thought the pilot said that he kinda lost contact with the base, radio contact, and that he lost engine power for a brief period, and then they came back on, everything came back on and the thing was kinda off his wing and was following him.

TT:

Yeah, it paced them forhe said 20 miles.

MO:

But it's really strange because I thought that the B-52, when it was over in another quadrant someplace, and that could have been...

TT:

They were over Mike [Flight].

MO:

Yeah

TT:

In fact the way it worked is that since you guys were talking to the Base Ops, or Base Dispatcherdo you remember his name?

MO:

No.

TT:

but then the control tower, so the B-52, it was down around Minot and they were on their way back out, they wanted to go out to the fix, turn around and come back 'cause they were checking a pilot at the time and so the control tower says," Well yeah..." you know, gives then a heading out, you know, says, "Go to 5000, we'll give you the 200 in a